Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Thankful for lots of things, even though I am feeling very sorry for myself. I had emergency eye surgery on Friday to repair a detached retina. It was caught in time to prevent blindness, but not soon enough to repair with laser surgery. So....full blown operating room surgery...and now I am home hoping for a speedy recovery. Patience is not my strength. I can work for a limited time on our laptop, but my desktop computer is a no go zone right now...too bright for my eye to handle. No photography. No sudden movements. I can only sleep on my right side (doctor's orders) which is causing great pain to my bad hip.Every time I blink it hurts. Boo! No one needs to feel sorry for me, because I'm looking after that well enough myself! The good news is that I don't need to invest in a Hallowe'en costume this year. My eye is one scary sight! I won't be updating the blog for a couple of weeks. Next time you hear from me, hopefully I'll be saying I can see again!

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

At the photography club last night, we worked with light boxes and thinly sliced fruits and veggies. I loved it, and think I might try this at home during the long winter months. The only problem last night was that there were so many people, it was difficult to spend much time at it. (this is a good problem...our photo club is getting lots of new members and is quite a vibrant club now!).

Monday, October 22, 2012

Today we did something we haven't done for much too long....we took a walk on the beach! We drove to Rissers Beach and had a nice long walk, sharing the beach with just a couple of other people. It was heaven.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

I received a photo of one of my windows from its new owner...Jason. He wrote: "I'm situated on a little peninsula on Musq. Hrb. so it was hard to find a spot
that wasn't blocking a view of the harbour. I chose my office for now
although I might move it around a bit. Just wanted to say thanks! It's a great
piece as are all of your others. I fell in love with this one when I saw it.
It's such a great composition and I like the way that mosaic tree looks with the
houses." It's so nice to hear from the people who purchase my windows. It's always hard to part with them, so I love to see them hanging in their new homes. Thanks Jason!This past week has been a struggle, because I have lost most of the sight in my left eye, which has been rather scary. I spent 3 days in various doctor's offices last week, and have been diagnosed with "Posterior Vitreous Detachment". I'm finding it quite difficult to deal with, and am guessing that I only have about 25% of my normal vision out of my left eye. Reading, computer work, driving, photography....just about everything takes quite an effort. Feeling sorry for myself doesn't help! I am waiting to see a specialist in "the big city", but the good news is that they don't think I have a retinal tear....that requires emergency surgery.And....my final update for the day. If you live around here, you already know that John did not win the
election for District 9. I'm very proud of him for his 2nd place
finish...quite an accomplishment for a "Come From Away" who was up
against an established provincial politician! It's a "win" in my book
anyway. I have been fired as official agent and manager for John's campaign, but he tells me that I will continue in my role as life partner and soul mate. Phew. That's a relief!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Recently, I took a drive down to Port Mouton to take a look around a couple of properties that a friend from Toronto is interested in. Looking at real estate is one of my favourite things to do, so I jumped at the chance. I took Myrtle (our cat) as a passenger....her first car ride since we brought her home from SHAID. She was great, and it was fun having her along. She was nervous at first, and meowed constantly, but quickly settled in. She didn't complain when I stopped along the way back home to take some photos. It was a dull day, but great to get out and about.

Monday, October 1, 2012

DIL and Miss M joined us for 2 days of the past long weekend. It was beautiful and sunny and warm (even hot). On Saturday, DIL and I went antique shopping and visited some shops that I've passed by many times but never stopped to visit. It's always fun to help DIL spend some of her money! John took Miss M for an ice cream and visit to a school playground.

me, Miss M, DIL and Cassie

On Sunday, we spent a great day outside. We released the hens (see my last posting for details), and tested out the apples.We dug up some small trees and transplanted them near the house. Once they start growing, our house will look less like it's in the middle of a hay field (which it is) and more like it actually has a yard.

Miss M and Cinder

It was a great weekend of family time, and wonderful of DIL to visit us when G was away.

John (aka Baba) and Miss M

But Monday was a whole different story. Suddenly, it's fall. We've had very cool and rainy weather since the weekend. Today our winter wood supply arrived, courtesy of our neighbours. Ivan is a late 70s-early 80s man who is so active it's a little embarrassing for us laggards. He works the forest all summer and sells cords of wood, grows Christmas trees to sell, and is currently building an addition on his house by himself. We bought 2 cords from him, and he and his wife delivered them today. I love the sight of this wood pile! Nothing beats the look and smell of a wood fire on a cool day, and that's one thing I'm looking forward to as the days cool and fall and winter approach. John isn't quite as pleased about this prospect, as he'll be the one lugging wood into the house! The guinea hens were all over the place today, something we'll be thankful for next spring when tick season returns. Here they are on the flagstone path (created by me earlier this summer) leading up to our screened in porch. The hens were in the backyard, by the wood pile, in the front yard, by the old barn foundation, you name it and they were there today. The dogs still want to eat them, however, so they are stuck in the house with us while it rains.Today our power went off for an hour or so, which gave the generator a good test. The previous owners had a generator hard wired to the house, so when the power goes off the generator automatically comes on. There was something cool about being able to carry on as normal even with the power off. I got lots of sewing done during the power outage...more on that soon.